A fit and healthy maths teacher was forced to quit his job after a slight ache in his wrist triggered a six-year spiral of battling constant pain throughout his body.
John Burns described as every movement he made feeling like "shards of glass being tabbed into his joints." John was 44 when he was diagnosed with arthritis, a common condition which involves joints within the body becoming inflamed.
Although there are many different types of arthritis, many people's pain is treated with medication and can continue to live a normal life. Unfortunately for John, he was forced to give up his job after calling in sick became a habit.
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The dad-of-one, from Didsbury, told the Manchester Evening News how he struggled to sleep at night and became depressed due to the persistent pain that was coursing through his body.
He said: "My worst days were when I would have to get up for work. I'd have to be up for 6.40am, but I wouldn't have woken up because I'd have been awake most of the night anyway.
"I knew at 3am I wasn't going to make work. The following hours would just be horrendous because they would be so depressing.
"I couldn't surface out of bed until my body warmed up, it would sometimes take up to three hours. It was excruciating; it was as if my body was all broken."
Millions of people throughout the UK suffer with arthritis and it can affect people of all ages. Common arthritis symptoms include swelling, pain, stiffness and diminished range of motion in joints. They can vary from mild to severe and may come and go.
After John was diagnosed in 2011, he was only experiencing minor symptoms which started with an ache in his wrist. Unfortunately, the pain then spread to other areas in his body to the point where he was constantly suffering.
"I was at my worst in 2013," he added. "It got to the point where I couldn't really work. Those were really dark days where I can imagine some people would not be able to cope maybe even with life.
"It wasn't so much the illness, it was the depression that it brought, too. There was so much misery. It affected all the family. I only managed to snap myself out of it because I've always been one of those people who are self-minded."
After being given several different forms of medication to help ease the pain, nothing seemed to click for John. But when he was offered an expensive treatment - only given to those with severe symptoms - things finally started to look up.
The medication meant John was able to reclaim part of his life and returned to work three times a week.
With the slight pain relief, John decided to look into other types of alternative treatments including acupuncture. The treatment, which derives from traditional Chinese medicine, involves fine, flexible needles being inserted at specific points on the body.
"It really helped me and it gave me a different focus," he continued. "The acupuncturist told me I didn't need to take all my drugs and I was hesitant and frightened because I was on so many.
"I took a leap of faith and stopped all the drugs. Some people might say that's silly and suicidal to some extreme. From seeing the holistic medicine approach, I went on a journey of cleansing my body.
"I literally started again and only put things in my body that I knew would hopefully have some benefit, like anti-inflammatory fruit and veg.
"I knew I was improving and I got to a stage where I was able to start doing some kind of exercise. A year later, medics were baffled. I was on no medication and I just continued with this marvellous diet and my exercise increased.
"I went from strength to strength. Medics still can't believe what's happened to me. They can't work me out because there's no cure for arthritis. But I think if it gives one person a bit of hope, I've done justice to somebody."
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